Learning a language

The italics in the text mean that the concept is commented in the language notes below.

Learning a foreign language is very important because we live in a globalized society. This means that there are no frontiers, and that products and ideas circulate freely throughout the world. Globalization is not a new phenomenon, but the term has become popular only since the mid 1990s, when the Internet arrived at our homes. Globalization has changed many things in our jobs. For example, nowadays it is difficult to find a job near your home. In fact, it is difficult to find a job anywhere, so many people must move to other countries. If you are lucky enough to have a job, however, you will do better if you can interact and share experiences with people from other countries. This will open your mind and improve the quality of your work, but to do so, you must speak at least one foreign language.

The most important language in the world is English because it is the language used in our international relationships. Learning English is now a very important aspect in the education of children and adults. You must know English to improve at work, or even to do certain jobs. A person is not prepared for today’s world if he or she cannot speak that language. This is the reason why today English is in the curriculums of the majority of the vocational studies.

At this point, the obvious question is this: what can I do to learn English? The answer is also obvious: you should go and live in an English-speaking country for a time. So the next question is: what can I do if I cannot go to another country? The answer: take up English classes with a teacher! But, what can I do if I have no time to go to class? Well, there is also an answer to that question. Today we are lucky enough to have an alternative. This alternative is called online learning.

See the list of interesting links in the web material for websites with online English courses.

Learning a language online is a relatively new option, so many students still have the idea that it is very difficult to learn without a teacher who monitors your study. In fact, it is not so difficult, but you need to have the necessary qualities to be a good online student. Here is a summary of these qualities:

First of all, you must be familiar with the use of computers. You will have to do all your learning activities online. You will carry out all your communication with the teacher and other students in a virtual classroom. You will have to write and read online messages, and upload and download files, among other things.

You must have a lot of learning autonomy. The virtual classroom cannot cover everything that you need to learn English. This means that you should look for information and practice outside the course. When you learn a language, you must practise a lot, especially the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). Of these, speaking is the most difficult to practise online, so you will have to find someone to speak to you. You can also look for internet websites that offer extra practice on other aspects of English, like grammar and vocabulary.

The terms schedule (Cat: calendari) and deadline (Cat: termini) are very important in an online course. You will find the learning activities distributed throughout the course. It is necessary to do and submit the activities before the deadline.

You must be very well organized. These are good qualities in all the aspects of life, but they are especially important in online studies. Your study time will be very flexible. This means that you can study any day of the week and at any time of day and night, but it is very important that you organize your work so you can do everything progressively, and not everything at the same time. You should remember that in online studies the schedule is very strict.

You must have a strong will. Your objectives must be clear and you must work hard to achieve those objectives. You will sometimes have the feeling that you cannot do it. You may probably have the same feeling in many other aspects of your life, but you must be aware that you can do everything. You will often find that things are not easy, but you must try hard to do them anyway.

You must contact the teacher and the other students when you need anything. In online studies, you might have the impression that you are alone, but this is not true. The teacher can follow your progress all the time. You can contact him or her to explain your problems or ask questions and doubts. You can also contact the other students and share your experience with them and collaborate in your studies. Online communication can be very effective, but you must get used to ‘speaking’ online.

You must have a lot of patience. Learning a language means practising a lot. The results will be obvious only with time, but not immediately. You will probably have the impression that you do not advance in your learning, but you must persevere and continue studying after the end of the present course if you want to improve your English.

The conclusion is that learning online is a very good option for the students who have no time to go to school, but if you want to be successful in your studies, it is necessary to change your traditional points of view on education and adapt yourself to online learning.

Language notes

Nowadays (Cat. avui en dia, actualment): this adverbial is used to speak about the present time. Other adverbials with the same meaning are: now, today and at present. Do not confuse with the word actually (Cat. de fet, realment), which has a totally different meaning. This is an example of a ‘false friend’.
To do so (Cat. per fer això): in this context, so refers back to the statement in the previous sentence (open your mind and improve the quality of your work). Here we use so to avoid repeating the whole sentence.
Vocational studies (Cat. estudis de formació professional). Also called vocational training or career training. The term refers to the education based on employment. It is equivalent to the FP in the Spanish school system.
Take up (Cat. fer, iniciar, començar a fer una activitat). This is an example of a phrasal verb (a verb composed of verb + adverb). Other examples of phrasal verbs are: get up, turn on/off, break up, etc.
Carry out (Cat. portar a terme, realitzar). Another example of phrasal verb.
Practice (Cat. pràctica). This is a noun. We always spell this word with a c.
Practise (Cat. practicar). This word is a verb. In British English, we always spell the verb with an s, but in American English, it is spelt with a c, as the noun. The pronunciation of practice and practise, however, is the same.

Grammar

Pronouns (Cat. pronoms) are very important words in a language. We use pronouns to refer to nouns. For example, when we say: David is here. He is my friend, we use the pronoun ‘he’ to refer to ‘David’. In this way, we do not need to repeat the noun.

In English, the pronouns have different forms when they are the subject (Cat. subjecte) or the object (Cat. complement) of a sentence (Cat. oració).

The elements of an English sentence

A sentence is a group of words that have a meaning. In a sentence, the words have different functions. The most important are:

The subject (S): it says who or what does the action of the verb. For example: David is here.
The verb (V): it expresses the action or the state of the subject. For example: David is here.

Other common functions are:

The direct object (DO): it says who or what receives the action of the verb. For example: David drinks a cup of tea in the evening.
The indirect object (IO): it says who or what receives the direct object. For example: David gives his friend a cup of tea.
The adverbial of time (AT): it says when the action happens. For example: David drinks a cup of tea in the evening.
The adverbial of place (AP): it says where the action happens. For example: David is here.

A basic verb in English is the verb to be (Cat. ser, estar). As all the verbs, the verb to be has different forms. These forms depend on the subject of the sentence. We call the different forms of the verb the conjugation (Cat. conjugació) of that verb.

Subject and object pronouns

Subject pronouns

The subject pronouns always have the function of subject in the sentence. They have the following forms:

Taula: The subject pronouns

	Singular		Plural
First person:	I	jo	we	nosaltres
Second person:	you	tu, vostè	you	vosaltres, vostès
Third person:	he	ell	they	ells, elles
	she	ella
	it	-

Notes:

The first person singular pronoun I (pronounced /ai/) is always written with a capital letter (Cat. majúscula).
In English, there is no distinction between the Catalan informal tu and the formal vostè, vostès.
The third person singular pronouns he (masculine) and she (feminine) refer to people. The pronoun it (neutre) refers to all the other nouns.

Here are some examples of subject pronouns:

I speak English (Cat. [Jo] parlo anglès).
You are tired (Cat. ([tu] estàs cansat/da).
David is my brother. He works in a hospital (Cat. David és el meu germà. [Ell] treballa a un hospital).
Mary is my sister. She lives in Manchester (Cat. Mary és la meva germana. [Ella] viu a Manchester).
It is very late. (Cat. - és molt tard).
We are at home. (Cat. [Nosaltres] som a casa).
How are you? (Cat. Com esteu [vosaltres]?, com estàs [tu]?).
These are David and Mary. They are my brother and sister (Cat. Aquests són David i Mary. [Ells]] són el meu germà i la meva germana).

Object pronouns

The object pronouns have the function of object (direct or indirect). We also use the object pronouns after a preposition. The following table shows the forms of the object pronouns and their Catalan equivalent forms:

Taula: The object pronouns

	Singular		Plural
First person:	me	me (a mi)	us	ens (a nosaltres)
Second person:	you	et (a tu); el, li (a vostè)	you	us (a vosaltres); els (a vostès)
Third person:	him	el, li (a ell)	them	els (a ells, a elles)
	she	el, li (ella)
	it	el, la

Examples of the use of the object pronouns:

Please help me! (Cat, Si us plau, ajuda’m).
David listens to you (Cat. David t‘escolta; David l‘escolta [a vostè]).
This is David. Go with him (Cat. Aquest és David. Vés amb ell).
This is Mary. Tell her the news (Cat. Aquesta és Mary. Dóna-li la notícia).
Mary lives in Manchester. It is a big city (Cat. Mary viu a Manchester. [-] És una gran ciutat).
Please come with us! (Cat. Si us plau, vine amb nosaltres!).
Are they with you? (Cat. Estan (ells/es) amb vosaltres; estan (/ells/es) amb vostès?).
Speak to them! (Cat. Parla amb ells, elles!).

The following text shows the use of pronouns in a text. The pronouns are in bold type (Cat. negreta):

In Catalan and Spanish, we normally omit the subject pronoun. In English, we always write or say the subject pronoun.

English:

’David gets up at seven everyday and then he has breakfast. At about eight, he goes to work with Mary, but he does not like going with her because she talks a lot. They usually come back home at five…’

Catalan:

’David es lleva a les set cada dia i després (ell) esmorza. Cap a les vui, (ell) va a treballar amb Mary, but a (ell) no li agrada anar amb ella perquè (ella) parla molt. (Ells) normalment tornen a casa a les cinc…’

The verb 'to be'. There is/there are

The verb ‘to be’

The table shows the forms of ‘to be’(in present):

Taula: The verb ‘to be’ (present)

	Affirmative Long form	Affirmative Short form	Negative Long form	Negative Short form	Interrogative
I	am	‘m	am not	‘m not	am I…?
you	are	‘re	are not	aren’t	are you…?
he, she, it	is	‘s	is not	isn’t	is he/she/it…?
we	are	‘re	are not	aren’t	are we…?
you	are	‘re	are not	aren’t	are you…?
they	are	‘re	are not	aren’t	are they…?

Long and short forms

Verbs usually have two forms:

Long forms: they are used in the written, formal language.
Short forms: we omit some letters. They are used in the oral, informal language.

The verb ‘to be’ is used in different ways:

1) As a lexical verb (Cat. verb lèxic), with the meaning of Cat. ser, estar. For example:

David is a doctor (Cat. David és metge)
He is tired (Cat. està cansat)

2) As an auxiliary verb (Cat. verb auxiliar):

To form the continuous tenses of the verbs. For example: David is working now (Cat. David està treballant en aquest moment).
To form the passive voice. For example: This is explained in this letter (Cat. Això està explicat en aquesta carta).

The lexical verbs and the auxiliary verbs

The lexical verbs are the verbs that express an action or a state. Practically all the verbs are lexical. The auxiliary verbs are the verbs that we use to form other verb tenses. In English, there are three auxiliary verbs:

To be: it forms the continuous tenses and the passive voice.
To have: it forms the perfect forms.
To do: it forms the negative and interrogative forms of the lexical verbs.

There is / There are

The forms there is (singular) and there are (plural) express the existence of a noun. It is equivalent to Cat. hi ha and Sp. hay. In English, there are two forms: one for the singular and one for the plural, but in Catalan and Spanish, there is only one. Here are all the forms in English:

Affirmative: there is…, there are…
Negative: there is not … there are not …
Interrogative: is there…?, are there…?

Examples:

There is a person at the door (Cat. Hi ha una persona a la porta).
There are two people at the door (Cat. Hi ha dues persones a la porta).
There is not anything to say (Cat. No hi ha res a dir).
There are not many people in the room (Cat. No hi ha molta gent a la sala).
Is there anyone in the office? (Cat. Hi ha algú a l’oficina?).
Are there any jobs available (Cat. Hi ha feines disponibles?).

Communication

In English, there is a great difference between the formal and the informal language. We use the formal language to speak to our superiors at work or to a person that we do not know; we use the informal language to speak to friends, colleagues and family members. The English give a lot of importance to formalities, so we must be careful and use the appropriate language in each situation.

There are four skills (Cat. habilitats) in all the languages:

See Unit 1, section 2 ‘Communication’ for learning about the written skills

Oral skills: listening and speaking
Written skills: reading and writing

Learning a foreign language means to develop the four skills. For this, you need a lot a lot of practice: you must speak English to speak fluently; you must listen to English understand the language; you must write to produce an accurate text and you must read to understand a written text.

Formal and informal style

Both styles are correct; it is only a matter of tone and setting. These are the main characteristics of the formal and the informal styles:

See annex ‘Formal and informal style’ for examples of the two styles in business letters.

Formal style:

It uses the long forms of the verbs verbs: I am, he is not, etc.
It uses the full forms of the nouns, and not the abbreviations: photograph (and not: photo), television (and not: TV), etc.
In requests, it uses the form could you…?, and not the imperative form: could you help me? (and not: help me!).
It frequently uses the passive voice, especially in written English: it is considered that… (and not: people consider that…), etc.
It uses the formal versions of words and expressions: post (and not: job), I would like… (and not: I want…), etc.
In writing, it uses longer, more complex sentences.

Informal style:

It uses the short forms of the verbs. For example: I’m, he isn’t, etc.
It generally uses the abbreviated forms of the nouns. For example: photo, TV, etc.
In requests, it generally uses the form can you…? or the imperative form. For example: can you help me?, help me!, etc.
It does not frequently use the passive voice.
It uses colloquial words and expressions: job (for: post), dad (for: father), hi (for: hello), etc.
In writing, it generally uses short and simple sentences.

When you write or speak in English, you must be consistent: do not mix the formal and the informal styles. Compare these two texts with the same information, but different language styles:

Formal text

Dear Sir or Madam

This is to inform you that I am interested in the post of administrative assistant advertised in ‘The Guardian’ of 3r March. I would appreciate it if you could send me further details. Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely

Informal text

Do you remember the advertisement for a job as an administrative assistant? It was in ‘The Guardian’ of the last 3rd March. Well, I inform you that I’m interested in this job. Can you tell me more about it? Thanks.

Bye

The listening skills

Like all the skills, the only way of developing your listening skills is by practising as much as you can. You must train your ear to the sounds of the English language, so you must listen to people speaking in English. The best option is to practise with another person (preferably a native speaker). If you have no possibility of speaking in English, there are other options for practising the listening skills. Here is a list of options:

Check the ‘Interesting links’ section in the course material for a list of websites with listening activities.

Watch films, TV series or TV documentaries in their original language (most are in English). Of these, documentaries are the easiest to understand because the speech is more formal and does not include conversations. Use subtitles in Spanish to help you understand, if you wish.
Listen to songs in English and read the lyrics at the same time. Do not worry about the meaning of the words; just listen to the sounds and enjoy the music.
Watch videos of your interest in YouTube, Vimeo, etc. There are thousands of videos especially created for practising the English listening skills.
Surf the Internet. You will find many websites with listening texts, usually with exercises to check your comprehension.

Here is some advice if you decide to practise your listening skills:

Do not try to understand all the words that you hear. You must learn gradually: at first, you will understand very little; later on, you will understand more and more things.
Be patient. It can take a long time to see the results of your practice: this depends on your previous experience, on the frequency of your practice, on your natural dispositions, on the people’s accent, etc.
Do not abandon. You must continue learning after the end of the course, or you may lose the listening skills that you have gained with your practice.

The speaking skills

See annex ‘The Phonetic Alphabet’ for a list of the sounds of the English language.

For many students, speaking is the most difficult of the four skills. Speaking usually happens in two situations:

A speech (Cat. discurs, xerrada): for example, in a presentation. In a speech, you speak and other people listen; the language style is usually formal.
A conversation (Cat. conversa): it is the most common situation at work and in your daily life. In a conversation, there is interaction with other people; the language may be formal or informal, depending on the situation.

To develop the speaking skills, you must practise a lot. Here is some advice for you:

Check the ‘Interesting links’ section in the course material for a list of websites to practise your pronunciation and speaking skills.

To practise your pronunciation, check websites where you can listen to words and sentences; then repeat what you hear. Many online dictionaries (like ‘Wordreference.com’) offer the pronunciation.
Find another person to speak to: you can practise with another learner of English or with a native speaker.
Check the Internet: some websites offer speaking practice via Skype to students of English from all over the world.
Do not be afraid of making mistakes: people will understand that you are not a native speaker.

During a conversation, we can use some common expressions. Here are some examples (with equivalent expressions in Catalan):

To start a conversation:

Hello! (informal) (Cat. Hola!)
Excuse me (formal) (Cat. Perdoni)

To ask people to repeat:

Pardon? (informal) (Cat. Perdoni?)
Can you repeat please? (informal) (Cat. Pots repetir si us plau?)
Could you repeat please? (formal) (Cat. Podria repetir si us plau?)
Could you say that again please? (formal) (Cat. M’ho podria tornar a dir si us plau?)
Sorry, but I didn’t understand. What did you say? (formal) (Cat. Perdoni, però no l’he entès. Què ha dit?)

To finish a conversation:

Well, I must go I’m afraid (formal/informal) (Cat. Bé, hauria d’anar marxant)
OK, it was a pleasure talking to you (formal) (Cat. Bé, ha estat un plaer)

Vocabulary: general terminology

computer (n): ordinador.
computer data (n): dades
computer expert (n): expert en ordinadors, informàtic
computer geek (n): geni dels ordinadors, friqui
computer lab (n): sala d’ordinadors
computer programmer (n): programador
computer science (n): informàtica computer skills (n): coneixements informàtics
computer-illiterate (n): persona sense nocions d’informàtica
computer-literate (n): persona amb nocions d’informàtica
computing (n): v. computer science
desktop computer (n): ordinador de sobretaula
hardware (n): hardware
laptop (n): ordinador portàtil
on/off button (n): botó d’engegar i apagar
PC (n): v. personal computer
personal computer (n): ordinador personal
smartphone (n): smartphone, telèfon intel·ligent
software (n): software
tablet (n): tablet, tauleta
to crash (v): caure el sistema
to reboot (v): reiniciar
to run (v): executar (un programa)
to switch off (v): desendollar
to switch on (v): endollar
to turn off (v): apagar
to turn on (v): engegar
to upgrade (v): actualitzar
upgraded (adj): actualitzat/da
upgrading (n): actualització
web page (n): pàgina web
website (n): lloc web

Translating a text

The target language refers to the language that we are learning. It is the opposite of the mother tongue.

At the early stages in the learning of a language, we translate all the time from our own language into the target language. When we read a text in English, we mentally translate it into the mother tongue in order to understand it. When we write a text, first we think what we want to say in our language and then we translate it into English. When we try to speak, first we think in Catalan or Spanish and then we translate our thoughts into English. This is the normal process when you study the language outside an English speaking context. As you advance in the study of the language, you ‘learn’ to think in English. Then you do not need to translate because the thoughts come naturally in the target language.

But apart from the personal use of translation that we may make in our learning process, we should also learn how to make a good translation of written texts. Considering that the greatest part of professional documents, manuals and correspondence is in English, it is important to learn how to translate a text for the benefit of others.

The most basic tool for translation is a bilingual dictionary to look up the meaning of unknown words. It is also very important to have a good knowledge of the grammar structures of both the mother tongue and the foreign language because we must not only translate the words, but also the sentence structures. As Catalan and English belong to different linguistic families (Romanic and Germanic, respectively), their syntactical structures are often very different. For example, imagine that we must translate the English sentence ‘I’m 25 years old’ into Catalan. Here we do not need a dictionary because we know all the words. But if we translate only the words, the result is ‘Jo sóc 25 anys vell’, which makes little sense in Catalan. We must also translate the syntactical structure and think which is the correct way of transmitting the same idea in Catalan. In this case, it is not difficult to understand the idea and translate that sentence as ‘Tinc 25 anys’. The example is very simple, but it illustrates very well how both languages express the same idea with two different syntactical structures.

Automatic translators, like the Google Translator, are increasingly popular nowadays. They are very useful at work for understanding the meaning of short texts, like emails or instructions, but we should not use them systematically to understand written texts in English. If you want to learn English, you must work on the vocabulary and the syntactical structures of the language. Do not let an automatic translator to do all the work for you!

A good translation should transmit the original idea as well as possible. The resulting text should adjust to the syntactical rules of the language into which you translate.

Here is an example of translation of a technical text from English into Catalan. As you compare both texts, notice the different syntactical structures and how this difference has been solved:

English version:

As with many computer-related devices, mice are being combined with other gadgets and technologies to create improved and multipurpose devices. Examples include multi-media mice, combination mice/remote controls, gaming mice, biometric mice, tilting wheel mice and motion-based mice.

(from the website www.howstuffworks.com)

Catalan version:

Com és el cas en molts aparells relacionats amb els ordinadors, els ratolins es combinen amb altres aparells i tecnologies per tal de crear dispositius millorats i polivalents. Alguns exemples són els ratolins multimèdia, la combinació de ratolins i comandaments a distància, els ratolins utilitzats en els jocs, els ratolins biomètrics, els ratolins amb la roda inclinada i els ratolins basats en el moviment.

In the example above, we can see that the most important thing in a translation is to transmit the same idea of the original language as approximately as possible, but using the structures of the language into which you are translating the text.

The process is the same in the case of what is called a ‘reversed translation’, a translation from the mother tongue into a forein language. We normally use a ‘reverse translation’ when we have to write a text in English because we tend to think in our own language and then translate into the foreign language.